Chris Weitz Defends Fan accused of Piracy

Another reason to love "New Moon" director Chris Weitz.


A Chicago woman facing prison time for videotaping three minutes of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” has a new ally in her legal battle — the film’s director.

Veteran director Chris Weitz told the Sun-Times he’s dismayed about Samantha Tumpach’s arrest Nov. 28 at a Rosemont movie theater on a felony charge of illegally copying his new hit film, and he’s contacted the film’s studio about his concerns.

“Needless to say, the case seems to me terribly unfair and I would like to do what I can to address this,” Weitz wrote in an e-mail.
The 22-year-old Tumpach could receive a three-year prison term after being arrested on a rarely used felony charge intended to prevent movie patrons from secretly recording new movies with handheld cameras, then selling bootleg copies.

Tumpach, who spent two days in jail awaiting a bond hearing after her arrest, acknowledged there were a couple of short segments of the movie on her digital camera — though she contended she wasn’t trying to record the movie.

Instead, Tumpach told the Sun-Times last week that she was taping parts of her sister’s surprise 29th birthday party celebrated at the Muvico Theater — including her and other family members singing “Happy Birthday.”

The three minutes of footage she shot inside the theater, Tumpach said, also included film previews and ads, along with short segments of the film — and her talking about the camera and the movie.

“It was never my intention to record the movie,” Tumpach said. “You can hear me talking the whole time.”

Weitz questioned whether her arrest was justified.

“There is, needless to say, a difference between trying to protect the copyright of a film and making an unfair example of someone who clearly seems not to have any intentions towards video piracy,” Weitz wrote.

He said he had contacted the studio that released the film, Summit Entertainment, to express his concern about her arrest, but he acknowledged there’s probably little he can do to influence the outcome of her case.

“I am not sure what effect I would have on the case,” he wrote, noting “the film is, after all, not my property.”

Tumpach, who faces a court date Dec. 17, couldn’t be reached for comment. She said last week she considered the incident “a big thing over nothing.”

“We were just messing around,” she said. “Everyone is so surprised it got this far.”

Source: SunTimes

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"New Moon" is expected to make $17 Million this weekend

According to HollywoodInsider, "New Moon" is expected to earn $17 million this weekend, trailing behind Sandra Bullock's movie "The Blind Side."


It’s a rare box-office treat when a film that has been in release for two weeks is destined to hit the number one spot at the box office. But The Blind Side has been a surprise since it debuted opposite New Moon two weeks ago to a solid $34 million and then did the unthinkable, which is gain 18% of its audience its second frame. Now the Sandra Bullock-starrer has earned a robust $105 million and is destined for a number one slot this weekend. It helps that the weekend following Thanksgiving is traditionally a slow one in theaters. Hollywood usually turns it over to the malls and its shoppers. But that bodes well for the holdovers. New Moon is likely to tumble again significantly its third weekend in theaters, but with $236 million already in the bank, another steep drop is to be expected. There are four new releases vying for placement at the box office derby but the only one with a real chance for the Top 5 is Screen Gems’ PG-13 rated heist flick Armored. Neither the Robert De Niro-starrer Everybody’s Fine nor the Tobey Maguire-Natalie Portman-Jake Gyllenhaal three-hander Brothers is likely to crack the top five. It’s interesting that both of the Oscar bait pictures Fine and Brothers are being released wide this frame. Conventional wisdom would suggest they’d open small and expand. Read on for my predictions.

1. The Blind Side: $24 million

The Blind Side is likely to hold in well this weekend and a 40% drop would put its total domestic gross at $130 million, quite a feat for a movie that cost $30 million. This feel-good tale from director John Lee Hancock (The Alamo) is resonating particularly well with audiences in smaller markets. The combination of football and charity seem to be just what they ordered this holiday season.

2. The Twilight Saga: New Moon: $17 million

New Moon is destined to cross the $250 million mark this weekend, trouncing Twilight’s total domestic gross with room to earn more. That’s another remarkable story for a film that sparks such deep emotion both for and against. It’s no wonder Summit is pondering two films with Stephenie Meyer’s final book Breaking Dawn. With this kind of cash, why would they ever stop?


Source: HollywoodInsider

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MTV Suggests on how to make "Eclipse" great for audiences

MTV.com makes a couple of suggestions on how to make "Eclipse" a film for everyone and not just for Twilight fans.


Amp up the Bella and Edward romance
"Twilight" established the potent romance between Bella and Edward, but "New Moon" sacrificed much of the chemistry for the sake of Bella's growing bond with Jacob. Granted, the reason why Edward was mostly absent during "New Moon" was because he broke up with Bella and was moping around in an apartment for months on end, but Chris Weitz forgot to reestablish why exactly Bella and Edward were so in love. With "Eclipse," we hope David Slade explores their connection, especially with so many fans jumping ship to Team Jacob after seeing Taylor Lautner's abs.

Expand the secondary characters
Even though Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner are the biggest draws for most fans, secondary characters like Anna Kendrick's Jessica, Mike Welch's Mike Newton, Dakota Fanning's Jane and Michael Sheen's Aro were key to some of the most fun parts of "New Moon." "Eclipse" introduces a whole slew of new characters (Riley and Leah, anyone?) and we hope some of the old favorites aren't sacrificed for the new, especially with Anna Kendrick's potential Oscar win for "Up in the Air." Plus, there's the fact that the scenes in which Bella interacts with humans (like her father, played by Billy Burke, and the high school students) are some of the most interesting and well-acted in the series thus far.

Make the fight scenes more action-packed
Yes, we understand that a lot of care went into making the CGI werewolves in "New Moon," and thank goodness the fight scenes in the second "Twilight" installment were better than the first, but the final battle in "Eclipse" is the most action-packed part of the entire "Twilight Saga." With David Slade's previous vampire film "30 Days of Night" under his belt, we can expect some intense action, but we'd like to remind him we want to see some newborn vamps being torn limb from limb anyways (and not just in slow motion).

Make the film more appealing to a non-"Twilight" audience
There are a lot of elements in "Eclipse" that could attract an audience not made up solely of Twilighters. In "New Moon," there was no effort spent on setting up the story from the previous book or explaining why Bella and Edward are so in love. "Eclipse" was the book that made Stephenie Meyer's vampire series what it is today, and hopefully "Eclipse" the movie will break the film series out to a larger audience as well.

Have fun with it
Some of the best parts of "New Moon" were when screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg and director Chris Weitz let loose and had fun with the film. "Face Punch," anyone? (This I consider a stroke of genius. I expect a "Face Punch" movie poster for Chanukah.) Flying Virgin America to Italy? Jessica's commentary on zombie films? If "Eclipse" doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't hold itself too close to the book, it could turn out to be not only a great movie for "Twilight" fans, but a great film in general.

Source: MTV

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Summit wants fan favorite Chris Weitz to direct 'Breaking Dawn'

According to Variety, fan and cast favorite director Chris Weitz is being considered to direct "Breaking Dawn." But finding a director for the last installment of the saga is not the complication that Summit is up against. They also have to consider the huge pay increase of Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner who only signed in for 4 movies. If "Breaking Dawn" becomes two films, then that means a hefty paycheck for the trio who are no international superstars. Read the article below from Variety.


The two-week $481 million worldwide gross of "New Moon" has vaulted Summit Entertainment into the big leagues, but it also has created a high-class challenge for toppers Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger.
They will likely have to cut a few big checks if they decided, as rumored, to split Stephenie Meyer's final "Twilight" novel, "Breaking Dawn," into two pictures. Sources said Summit has set Melissa Rosenberg -- who wrote the first three films -- to finish the series, but Summit has to clear several hurdles before Rosenberg learns how many more scripts she'll write.

One of those hurdles is figuring out whether "New Moon" director Chris Weitz will respond favorably to overtures from the film company and the cast to shoot two more films, back to back.

Summit execs would not comment, but multiple sources said the company wants to go the two-film route, which means reopening negotiations and securing approval from the author. It also means making new deals with a principal cast that is only locked up for four films. If "Breaking Dawn" becomes two pictures, all of the key cast members will get fat raises, and the three principals -- Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner -- could land paydays in the eight-figure range.

That's what happened with key cast members when Warner Bros. extended its blockbuster "Harry Potter" franchise by turning J.K. Rowling's last book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," into two films that will be released in November 2010 and July 2011. The global success of the franchise made the paydays worthwhile.

While the solution to most of Summit's challenges will be determined by its willingness to open its wallet, the prospect of a Weitz return is more complicated.

After feeling violated by New Line's altering of his pic "The Golden Compass," Weitz said he felt redeemed and reinvigorated by the success of "New Moon." Yet, just before the film's release, Weitz was steadfast that he would next direct "The Gardener," a comparatively tiny film scripted by Eric Eason, with Paul Witt and Christian McLaughlin producing. At the time, he said Summit was in discussions to fund that film.

Summit hasn't closed a deal for "The Gardener," probably because the film company wants Weitz to postpone it and work on "Breaking Dawn" instead. Can Weitz resist the chance to finish a global franchise he helped build, even though it will mean more time away from his family for a long shoot? That's the question the helmer and his reps will weigh shortly. Though Summit hasn't officially made Weitz an offer, sources said the job is his if he wants it. After bringing in "New Moon" at around $50 million and keeping the cast happy, he's the logical choice.

Source: Variety

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'New Moon': Why its girl-driven success is good for the future of movies

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly talks about the Twilight Saga and how its girl-driven success might be good for future movies.


Offhand, it would be hard to think of a pop phenomenon as rapturously beloved as the Twilight saga that is also as vociferously hated. My God, the hate! If swoony-gauzy teen-bloodsucker romanticism with a golden-eyed indie-rock James Dean as love object isn’t your cup of passion, then fine — so be it. But why the frothing torrents of resentment? I was seriously shocked, for instance, reading some of the comments on Lisa’s recent post, to see that this much stone-pelting hostility could be directed at an actress as lovely and expressive as Kristen Stewart. What is her crime? Having a personality moody and brainy and distinctive enough that it carries over, maybe a bit too much, from one role to the next? (That was true, as well, of the young Jane Fonda, whom Stewart often recalls.) It makes me wonder what, deep down, is getting the haters so flea-bitten scratchy under the collar.

Frankly, I think it’s this: The ascendance of the Twilight saga represents an essential paradigm shift in youth-gender control of the pop marketplace. For the better part of two decades, teenage boys, and overgrown teenage boys, have essentially held sway over Hollywood, dictating, to a gargantuan degree, the varieties of movies that get made. Explosive truck-smashing action and grisly machete-wielding horror, inflated superhero fantasy and knockabout road-trip comedy: It has been, at heart, a boys’ pig-out, a playpen of testosterone at the megaplex. Sure, we have “chick flicks,” but that (demeaning) term implies that they’re an exception, a side course in the great popcorn smorgasboard. Read More


Source: EW

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"New Moon" earns $474 million Worldwide in 2 Weeks

According to Reuters.com, "New Moon" took in $66 million during its five-day U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, pushing its total domestic sales in North America to $230.7 million and $243 million on foreign ticket sales bringing its worldwide total to $473,674,000.



LOS ANGELES, Nov 29 (Reuters) - "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" rose to the top of movie box office charts for the second straight week on Sunday with a three-day haul of $42.5 million on a record-breaking holiday weekend in North America, according to studio estimates.

Over the five-day U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, the vampire romance starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner took in $66 million, pushing its two-week total in theaters to $230.7 million in North America, said independent studio Summit Entertainment, which backed the movie.

Internationally, the high-profile sequel to last year's monster hit "Twilight," based on the best-selling novels by Stephenie Meyer, has taken in $243 million for a worldwide total just under $475 million in two weeks.

Richard Fay, president of domestic distribution for Summit, said the movie continued to do strong repeat business from mostly teenage girls who are fans of the movies and books, and it was able to expand its audiences to include older women.

Total movie ticket sales for the five-day holiday period in North America reached a record $278 million, beating the old figure of $244 million set back in 2000 when "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Unbreakable" were the two top films, according to sales tracker Hollywood.com Box-Office.

Source: Reuters

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20 Differences (That Work) Between ‘New Moon' and the Book

Here's an article from FearNet.com comparing the differences between the "New Moon" book and movie.


Way more shirtless boys!

We all hoped to get a glimpse of Edward's alabaster chest in Volterra, but who knew we'd get to see so much hot werewolf skin? Thankfully, the Wolf Pack run such high temperatures and explode away their clothes so frequently that cut-off jeans and no shirt are their shared ensemble of choice.

We get more fights, including an awesome Volturi throw down.

New Moon the book is infamous for its slow pacing, thanks to Bella's crippling depression (see below). So it's a good thing that the film throws in fistfights, wolf skirmishes, and chase scenes to liven things up a bit more. Our favorite: watching Volturi guard Felix put the smack down on our precious Edward, a scene crafted for the film.

Instead of talking to herself, Bella sends emails to Alice.

New Moon, like all of the Twilight books, makes frequent use of Bella's internal voice-overs to tell us what's going on in that angsty head of hers. In New Moon, Bella writes emails to her lost BFF, Alice, to work through her issues. We still get the voice-overs, but they're cleverly disguised as Bella's messages to Alice, and therefore much less "Vampire Diaries." (Also, creating a movie email address for Alice was a clever way to sneak in product placement for Apple's MobileMe email application.)

Bella's (a little) less mopey than she is in the books.

Much of the book is devoted to Bella's heartbreaking, months-long break-up depression, so it's a good thing that the film condenses her lost period a bit for the sake of storytelling. Critics complain already that Bella spends so much time staring into space, pining over Edward; if only they knew how much more we/she suffer in the books! Thankfully, Rosenberg's script snaps Bella out of her funk and moves on, sort of, in a relatively short span of time.

Bella's months-long depression, in the blink of an eye.

Fans were wondering how Chris Weitz would treat the infamous "lost" months of Bella's depression, which are depicted by blank pages in the book. After all, October, November, December, and January fly by as voids of nothingness to the girl. Weitz and Rosenberg's solution? A clever scene where Bella sits listless in front of her window as the camera moves around her to show the changing seasons outside. The trick captures her melancholia and is perfectly punctuated by Lykke Li's haunting, wistful track, "Possibility."

Edward doesn't hide Bella's photos.

In the book, when Edward decides to break up with Bella and leave town, he also sneaks into her room and hides her photos of him so that she'll have no reminders at all that he existed – a complete and total abandonment. (Can you imagine a world without pictures of RPattz? It would be horrible, indeed.) In the film, we see him in her room, but there's no messing with photographs, which would have been an unnecessary minor plot point anyway. Plus, those folks who think Edward's a little stalker-like might have been even more creeped out by him rifling through her stuff. Instead, we get the full impact of Edward's absence in Bella's misery.*

Jacob gives Bella a dream catcher.

One new scene in the film has Jacob giving Bella a dream catcher for her birthday, killing two birds with one stone in the process: giving her a present when Edward feels he cannot and putting the mack on her with a big bear hug right in front of Edward. Bella hangs the dream catcher above her pillow, but unfortunately for her, it doesn't help keep the nightmares away.

Bella goes for a bike ride at One Eyed Pete's.

Bella's attempt to put herself out there by going to Port Angeles with Jessica takes a dangerous (and hilarious) turn when she accepts a ride with a burly, beefy biker in order to hang on to her visions of Edward. In the book, she stops short of hopping on the chopper, but in the film she takes a full-on joyride with a stranger. How boring would it have been if she'd just turned around and walked back to safety?

More snarky Anna Kendrick!

Besides giving Bella her very first brush with danger, the biker scene serves another purpose: letting Anna Kendrick shine. As Jessica, Kendrick once again steals every scene she's in, and Bella's foolish biker episode gives her some of her very best frenemy lines of dialogue. Bonus: Kendrick's blissfully ignorant snark attack on zombie movies.

Two words: Face Punch!

In addition to the zombie genre, New Moon has a little something to say about stupid action flicks. One of the best additions to the script involves Bella, Mike Newton, Jacob, and a popular (fake) blockbuster movie entitled Face Punch. (Tagline: "Let's DO this!")

Visions of RPattz dance in Bella's head.

While Bella's hallucinations of Edward in the books are purely auditory, there's no way that would fly in the film. So Weitz injects plenty of pretty Rob Pattinson shots throughout the entire duration of Edward's absence, scrumptious visions that come and go like wisps of smoke. And really, there's tons of RPattz bookmarking New Moon, so we don't miss him all that much. (What am I saying? There's always room for more RPattz!)

Victoria is definitely in the water.

When Bella is drowning after cliff-diving in New Moon, we clearly see Victoria swimming toward her in the water right before Jacob pulls her out of the water – something that was hinted at, but kept ambiguous, in the books. We like it better this way, as it makes Bella's danger more present and, let's be real, gives Rachelle Lefevre a little more to do, considering that she has exactly zero lines in the whole movie.

Bella hits Paul in the face!

In a film packed with phasing wolves and marble-cracking vampire fights, it's nice to see Bella get a little action. Angry that they've brainwashed her beloved Jacob, Bella confronts the Wolf Pack, shoves Sam Uley, and smacks Paul right in the kisser! Sure, it seems a little out of character, but at least in this moment, Bella is an agent of action and not merely reacting to the people around her. Plus, it leads into Paul's transformation and Jacob's mid-air phase, and the huge revelation of the Quileute secret.

Carlisle's Volturi painting comes to life.

Instead of waiting ‘til the end to meet the Volturi, we get an early peek at them when Carlisle's painting comes to life as Edward explains their history to Bella. Thank goodness! It would be such a waste to have even less of Aro & Co. in New Moon than the brief sequence we already get.

Victoria attacks Harry Clearwater.

While tracking the Wolf Pack – and slyly covering their footprints – Harry Clearwater suffers a fatal heart attack in the woods. But in the film, we see that Harry's heart attack comes from the shock of being attacked by Victoria, who is seen stalking Charlie's hunting party from up in the trees. The change here allows plot points to converge, as the ensuing wolf pursuit of Victoria runs parallel to Bella's fateful cliff-jump into the ocean. And again, it gives Rachelle Lefevre something to do.

New Moon has way more funnies.

Credit Rosenberg for injecting more sly humor into New Moon, which was especially necessary in this installment. Supporting humans like Jessica, Mike, and Charlie add levity to their scenes with the somber Bella, while more subtle winks, like the comparison of werewolfiness to a "lifestyle choice" and Bella's transatlantic ride aboard a Virgin Atlantic airplane, display a self-aware sense of humor.

Jacob and Bella almost kiss. Twice!

New Moon is Jacob's movie, so Rosenberg rewards him with not one, but two almost-kisses. If you look closely, their lips ACTUALLY TOUCH the second time!

Jacob and Edward face off in the woods – just not when you expect.

If you've read New Moon, you're already expecting the tense "treaty" discussion between Jacob and Edward. Rosenberg wisely juggles the timeline a bit, placing it before the key conclusion (see #19), and adds one last phase for the furious Jacob. (It's the closest Bella's two men come to blows in New Moon.)

Edward proposes!

Rosenberg saves the best for last, leaving Bella (and us) with the biggest possible cliffhanger. Again, the re-jiggered placement of the scene works better cinematically, and leads into the next film, Eclipse!

Alice's vision. OMG, spoilers! (Seriously, MAJOR spoiler here concerning future installments of the Twilight Saga.)

When Aro "sees" Alice's vision of the future, he lets her, Edward, and Bella go with the knowledge that sometime soon, Bella will become a vampire. As a special treat, the film shows us Alice's vision of Edward and Bella running through the woods (alas, in giggle-worthy outfits and slow motion). But after the snickers die down, think about exactly what you are seeing and you'll realize that it's essentially a preview of sorts… of something with the initials B and D!


Source: Fearnet.com

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